


in waters cold and kelly green

by Dott



Category: The Office (US)
Genre: F/M, Post-Finale, They're dysfunctional but I love them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-13
Updated: 2018-02-13
Packaged: 2019-03-17 15:33:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13661934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dott/pseuds/Dott
Summary: Ryan finally masters commitment (as much as a Ryan Howard can, anyway).





	in waters cold and kelly green

Ryan fumbled with the keys to his Volvo as Kelly practically crashed into her seat, giggling. He found himself smiling as he cranked the ignition.

Her hands reached for the radio knobs as he looked in the rear view mirror. Dwight and Angela's wedding looked small in its reflection as Kelly Clarkson's Breakaway blasted through the speakers. He flinched at the suddenness, but he didn't tell the girl beside him to turn it down.

Kelly giggled again and faced Ryan as he began turning the car around. His eyes were on the road, but he felt the brightness of her smile boring into his skin. Her voice could barely be heard over the music. "Ryan! Can you believe how perfect this song is?"

"Uh-huh." He bit his lip and gripped the steering wheel tighter.

The chorus began at the exact moment he slammed his foot on the gas. The tires screeched as the car lurched forward on the gravel, and Ryan felt all his doubts surface in his mind. His fear of being trapped, of being unable to do anything he wanted. That was one power he couldn't bear to have taken away from him.

It had happened before. The time he spent in New York was unforgettable, but he couldn't remember most of what he did in the dance clubs those nights, and it had cost him his job in the end.

It happened with WUPHF. That had been Kelly's idea, but he had taken all the credit for it, and he paid for that, too.

But this wasn't New York, and this wasn't WUPHF. He was going to have his cake and eat it too.

Kelly rolled down the window and screamed in delight, snapping him out of his thoughts, and he found himself whooping along with her. He hadn't ever done anything like this with her. He felt like he owed her at least this much.

It felt good. Staring the world down alongside her, instead of telling her how to navigate it. It felt good.

* * *

 

Kelly was uncharictaristicaly quiet as they lay in the dark together.

They had stopped by the first motel they found. He had to be with Kelly, and he felt the same from her. She had just kept singing to whatever pop song was on the radio when he pulled into the inn's parking lot.

After he paid for a room, they stumbled in, and he was smiling against her lips. She pulled his shirt up and off, and he did the same to her, and soon it was skin on skin, and he was positive this was how it was supposed to be.

Afterward, she had fallen asleep quickly. She hadn't chatted his ear off before she dozed off, not today. He kind of wished she had. Her voice was amazing.

And now, they were laying in the dark, and he was brushing through her hair with his fingers, feeling relaxed. He had expected to want to run like he always did, but he didn't. That alone scared him. He wasn't used to not running.

Ryan felt Kelly's nose scrunch up on his chest, and she sighed in her sleep. He decided he was done taking her for granted. She was right, she had always been right; they were meant to be together, and he wasn't going to let her go again.

Just let that doctor try and come after her. Ryan would make his life miserable.

* * *

 

"Ryan."

He woke up the next morning to the combined sounds of rattling and Kelly repeating his name.

Ryan opened his eyes as much as his sleepy state would allow, and saw Kelly sitting on the other side of the bad, shaking a small cereal box in his face like a maraca. She was already dressed.

"Ryan, I went to the breakfast bar. It _sucked_ , but I got us some mini cereals. Froot Loops, your favorite."

He grunted in response.

She set the colorful box next to his head. "Anyway, where are you staying? I didn't even know you were back in town. I texted Pam. She says that she saw Baby Drake with Nellie. I think she took him with her."

Ryan sat up, rubbed his eyes, and scratched his bare chest. "Sounds good to me."

"I still can't believe you had a baby." Kelly laughed, but there was an edge to it. "He was cute. Who was his mom? Tell me. Or don't, I don't care. We weren't together."

Ryan shook his head. "She was nothing. It's kind of a long story, just a one night stand that turned into a legal nightmare."

That wasn't untrue. Neither he nor the girl he had slept with wanted the baby when it happened; it was a shock getting a call after nine months saying he was a father.

He  _wasn't_ a father. If what Pam said was true, Nellie would be adopting him. She had wanted a kid but was never able to get one, Ryan thought. Win-win, right?

Kelly began eating her Cheerios from the box, one at a time. She sounded quiet and dismissive. "Okay."

Ryan leaned over and took her face in both his hands. "Baby, I mean it. I'd tell you if it was something more. We had a baby together, that's all."

A corner of her mouth perked up. "Really?"

"For sure. I was thinking about you the entire time we were making love."

"Ryan, that's so sweet."

"And besides, I want my real babies to be with you. I love you."

Kelly smiled, paused, and then frowned. "I love you too, Ryan, but I gotta know you're serious about wanting to be with me before we have babies."

"Baby, I  _am_ serious!"

"Oh, yeah? Tell that to the million other times you ran off. Ryan, I left a  _doctor_ to be with you last night."

Ryan shut his eyes and sighed. His hands dropped to his lap, landing on a couple more cereal boxes that Kelly had snagged.

The problem was, he WAS serious (as far as he could tell, anyway). But he had no idea how to prove that to Kelly. He HAD run off a million times. But he couldn't bear the thought of leaving her again, not when Ravi was around the corner.

He had gone too long without realizing that he wanted to be with Kelly forever, and now she couldn't trust him. It made him want to drop her off at Ravi's house and leave again, just so he could escape responsibility, but that would just be proving her right. He couldn't do that any more.

He took a box of Froot Loops and opened it. "I don't know if I can prove it to you. I just want you to trust me."

"It's hard for me to do that, you know. I love you, but it's hard."

"I know." He began eating the green Froot Loops. They all tasted the same to him, but that was his favorite color. They weren't quite Kelly-green, but close enough.

There was silence between them for a few minutes as both of them worked on their breakfast. The quiet was deafening.

As he finished his box, Ryan crumpled it in his hands, the cardboard corners sticking into his palms like knives. And then he got an idea.

"Kelly, what if we got a house together?"

She looked up, mid-Cheerio. "What?"

"Baby, would it prove it to you if we got a house together?" He tossed the box aside and grabbed his phone, frantically opening Google. "Let's get one, right now. Let's put a down payment on one. We'll live together, and it'll be great."

"Are you serious?"

"Dead serious."

"A house?! Ryan!"

She threw her arms over his shoulders in glee, kissing his cheek repeatedly as he searched. She laid her head and his shoulder and watched his screen intently, giggling.

Ryan paused. "Okay, you know what, I don't think I can buy a house from my phone. But as soon as we get to my laptop, we're gonna do that, okay?"

"Ryan, this is so exciting! We're gonna live together, and I'm going to have to get all my stuff from Ravi's apartment but it's gonna be so worth it, because I'm gonna wake up next to you every morning, and I can make you breakfast like they do on TV, and we can get one with a big backyard so we can have our wedding there like Dwight and Angela did in theirs, and it's gonna be so romantic!"

And, for once, Ryan agreed with everything Kelly said.


End file.
